Swans announce record profits

The benefits of Premier League membership are reflected in record profits of £15.9m announced by Swansea City FC for the six months up to the end of November 2012.   The Swans are well placed to take advantage of the new Premiership television deal.    

It is planned to increase the capacity of the council-owned Liberty Stadium from 20,599 to 32,000 and there are plans for a new training facility.   A new shirt sponsorship deal is in the offing, the Swans having bought themselves out of their deal with 32Red a year early.

The benefits of Premier League membership are reflected in record profits of £15.9m announced by Swansea City FC for the six months up to the end of November 2012.   The Swans are well placed to take advantage of the new Premiership television deal.    

It is planned to increase the capacity of the council-owned Liberty Stadium from 20,599 to 32,000 and there are plans for a new training facility.   A new shirt sponsorship deal is in the offing, the Swans having bought themselves out of their deal with 32Red a year early.

Swansea lost £8.3m in their promotion-winning season of 2010-11, but they have made a profit ever since joining the top flight.   Admittedly, the sale of Joe Allen to Liverpool and Scott Sinclair to Manchester City contributed to an increased profit of almost £10m on the same period in 2011.  But intelligent player trading is part of the strategy required for a football club the size of Swansea to prosper.

It all looks like a textbook example of how a club can recover from difficulties that almost saw them drop out of the Football League.   However, a discordant note has been struck over dividends taken by by the owners.  Football journalist David Conn has written a critical essay on this theme.

In reply a Swansea City fan has tweeted, ‘Don’t think any SCFC fan will complain with the amount of time and money the board has put in.  They stood up when no one else could.’   David Conn has replied that he just provided the facts and some background.

This is the case, but he also has put forward a particular interpretation of those facts which he is entitled to do.  He is a distinguished author and journalist who has a particular and defensible view of how clubs should be run.   Some might feel, however, that it is a little sepia toned, although he would argue for a central role for fans in club governance rather than a reversion to the local businessmen (and they were men) of the past.